Duke Ellington

George Wein, the 84 year-old founder of the Newport Jazz Festival — and of jazz festivals, generally, by extension — is talking to writer Andrew Gilbert in Dizzy’s Den.

Here are some nuggets, from the conversation thus far.

On the state of jazz today:
“Jazz is no longer American music. It’s a world music.”

On the city of Newport, Rhode Island, where he founded his festival in 1954:
“Newport was like a southern city” where African-American musicians, in the early days of the festival, weren’t allowed to stay in local hotels. “So we put them up in private homes and it wasn’t long before Newport elected a black mayor. And none of that would have happened without the festival.”

On founding his jazz club, Storyville, in Boston in 1950, when he was 24 years old:
“I hired Art Tatum, Billie Holiday and everybody I loved. And three months later, I was $20,000 in debt — but I was in business!”

On Duke Ellington:
“I worshipped Duke Ellington. When Duke Ellington came to play in my club — hey, what else could life be?… To me, he was a god.”

Step into any jazz club, from Yoshiâ€™s in Oakland to the Blue Note in Tokyo, and thereâ€™s a decent chance that youâ€™ll hear a Duke Ellington tune being performed.

Both young lions and seasoned jazz cats continue to draw from the mighty songbook of this fabled musician (who died on May 24, 1974) and still manage to find beauty and power in such compositions as â€œMood Indigo” and â€œIt Donâ€™t Mean a Thing (If It Ainâ€™t Got That Swing).â€

While his best-known songs remain staples of the jazz repertoire, Ellingtonâ€™s one opera, â€œQueenie Pie,â€ hasnâ€™t gotten much attention. The Oakland Opera Theater, however, is planning to change that.